Abstract

Mu Kkubo Ery’Omusaalaba (1993) by Ugandan composer Justinian Tamusuza is an important representative of an intercultural composition in which the style of the piece embraces the amalgamation of Western and non-Western musical idioms. The particular non-Western musical idioms that this piece employs include Kiganda compositional styles and processes through devices such as the simulation of Kiganda musical instruments and the use of traditional Kiganda thematic materials, dialogue passages in what is commonly known as “call and response,” hemiola, limited pitch range and material, and repetitive rhythmic and polyrhythmic block textures to give prominence to rhythm as a significant component in defining structure. It is my thesis that a holistic examination of these components will reveal the underlying structure of the piece.

The second part of this dissertation, Baakisimba N’ebiggu, is a composition for violin, cello, percussion and prepared piano in which I fused Kiganda musical processes and contemporary Western musical idioms. The first and third sections of the piece employ a pentachordal pitch class set reminiscent of the Kiganda musical tradition. In the second section, a twelve-tone row is employed repetitively in order to contextualize a Western-influenced tonal arrangement with a Kiganda sound. The row is not transposed, but rather repeated with various musical transformations in register, dynamics, tone color, and speed (expansions and contractions), as well as motivic fragmentation, and superimposition of the row in multiple voices and at various intervals.

Similar to Tamusuza’s technique, Baakisimba N’ebiggu is a culmination of my musical encounters, the result of which is a comparable blending of Kiganda stylistic idioms and processes with Western compositional techniques in order to create a unique aesthetic product. Nevertheless, there are many points of departure from Tamusuza’s approach, especially when it comes to instrumentation, stylistic simulations, pitch and harmonic language, as well as the overall structural and compositional strategies of the piece.